Winnie-the-Pooh Returns to Court
Compiled by Rachel Lee Harris
November 15, 2009
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/books/16arts-WINNIETHEPOO_BRF.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=winnie-the-pooh&st=cse
The estate of Stephen Slesinger, the producer who acquired licensing rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh works and characters from A. A. Milne in 1930, has been suing Disney for rights infringement since 1991, and isn’t stopping now, according to BBC News. After a Los Angeles judge dismissed a case brought by the estate in 2004 (on the grounds that its legal team illegally obtained documents by trespassing on Disney property) and a federal judge dismissed another this September (ruling that Mr. Slesinger had transferred all rights to Disney), lawyers filed papers in Los Angeles last week arguing that Disney owes the estate hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties. The suit says that Disney combined profits from Pooh and Mickey Mouse merchandise, thereby concealing revenues owed to the estate. Describing the lawsuit as “baffling,” a Disney spokeswoman said that the issues had been settled with the September ruling.